


Somewhere I Belong

by KisekiMa



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Friends, Eventual Romance, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sephiroth split himself in two, Trauma, Unethical Experimentation, he probably borrowed the Yamato from Vergil
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:00:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27581713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KisekiMa/pseuds/KisekiMa
Summary: They didn’t want to trust this guy, but his ability to silence the voices in Cloud’s head with a single touch was a blessing, wasn’t it?When Sephiroth threw away the pitiful remnants of his own humanity, along with things like kindness, empathy, guilt, fears and traumas, he didn’t expect them to strike back at him, in the weirdest form imaginable.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 39





	1. Flowers on the Wall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of Hojo’s ‘failed experiments’ gains consciousness and finds a certain room.

He didn’t expect to see this place again. Hojo’s laboratory, watched from the inside of a mako tank, seemed as scary as when he was a kid. Not the best place to gain consciousness, to be honest.

It wasn’t the main laboratory, though, but a smaller one at the lower floor. The one Hojo used to keep failed experiments in, at least until he came up with a new idea to make use of them.

Judging from the overall capability of the artificial body he found himself in, it was a backup shell for Hojo’s greatest specimen. But, for some reason, professor found it useless.

_If he only knew… Now let’s move this thing, shall we?_

It felt like operating a broken machine. Lungs were weak, able to take only shallow breaths. Heart could break at any moment, if forced to fight or even run. Muscles, barely ever used, weren’t ready to lift the weight of their own dysfunctional body...

It didn’t matter to him. He needed to make it work, even if only on sheer willpower.

And of that, he had plenty.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before he managed to move the thing. Minutes or hours? Forcibly pushing impulses through the unwilling nerves wasn’t easy, but he had some experience with puppets already.

 _Well, at least this time it doesn’t require violating someone’s mind and crushing his ego to screaming pieces._ He clung to that thought, finding it strangely calming. Although he existed in this form for no more than few hours, he had already enough of feeling guilty for them both.

Finally, the body activated completely. It shivered, almost jumped in place, like when waking up from a dream about falling down into the unknown abyss.

 _Easy, no need for such ruckus_. He froze for a moment, alarmed by a tsunami of bubbles and disturbing mechanical noises nearby. It wasn’t the best moment to be discovered. Not yet.

The assistants would probably ignore the bubbles, but brain and nerves emitted waves, which triggered the machinery attached to the tank. It was bad. Very bad. He supposed he could deal with regular personnel, but if Hojo decided to come down here…

No, he had no time to waste, nor intention to become a lab rat again!

He stopped breathing for a long moment, hearing a distant sound of footsteps on the corridor. Someone was coming, slowly but inevitably, and the only thing he could do to avoid detection was staying still and hoping no one notices the unexpected awakening.

The intruder had already used a card to open the door, when the alarm howled in the entire building. A voice that wasn’t Hojo’s cried out in panic and its owner retreated hastily, abandoning his duties without regrets.

_They’re here! They came for her!_

Surprised by his own enthusiasm, he attacked the walls of his prison with all his might (which wasn’t impressive at the moment, to be honest). Most of the staff would lock themselves in safety rooms and the entire floor would probably be locked, but it didn’t matter – he knew **they** will find a way through, they’ve always had. It was a perfect opportunity to do what’s needed to be done.

The glass broke with an awful sound, which, luckily, drowned in the noise of the alarm. Everything that happened next felt like a painful fever dream. He barely remembered laying on the wet floor, naked and fighting for every breath. Then covering his hair with a lab coat, because the flickering silver would be too obvious in security cameras. And crawling through the cold corridors, one impossible step after another, ignoring all the rampaging monsters around (he wasn’t afraid of them, even in his current state, at least not of the ones with the calamity cells).

Exhausted and barely conscious, he was forced to seek hideout, at least for a moment. He would accept even another mako tank or an abandoned room, it didn’t really matter. The body wasn’t used to constant exertion yet and he didn’t want it to break without achieving anything.

Relying on his shattered memories, he turned into a narrow corridor and opened the first door he could.

He knew these rooms, or rather cells, where important specimens lived between the experiments – a standard type with reinforced doors and no windows. Random pieces of furniture, meant to imitate normality, only made it feel more like a prison…

This one, however, was a bit different. It had flowers on the wall. Painted with bright, intense colors, they were blooming in every possible direction.

It felt warm. Like a garden in the heart of Shinra’s hell.

He briefly remembered his own room, very similar to this one, but smaller and somehow… darker. Sterile, empty even. There was nothing on the walls and he would never dare to change it.

Why was that? Was he even allowed to have colored pencils? Was he even allowed to paint, to play?

He touched gently one of the flowers, struck by its simple, sincere beauty. A child or not, the artist had a pure, innocent soul.

And he destroyed that gorgeous being… what for, exactly? To break the only person he had ever admired?

He pressed his forehead to the wall, suddenly overwhelmed by waves of emotions he couldn’t recognize. They had been within him all the time, trampled and suppressed for so long he forgot about them. Wasn’t it too late to learn it anew?

What did it matter, if he’d already done things that cannot be undone?

Knowing that no apology would be enough, he just let the tears fall down freely. It was something new and weird. Exhausting. Made him feel vulnerable and pitiful, like a weak human, not the strongest being on the planet.

“What a pain, really.” No wonder his other self decided to get rid of such… inconvenience.

But he was still there, somehow, which seemed like a miracle to him. There certainly was an important reason behind this miracle – or that’s what he tried to believe.

He needed to stop his other self from doing any more harm. Not out of vengeance, he wasn’t truly able to seek revenge in his new, incomplete form. He wanted to protect, to right his wrong, even if the price was...

Suddenly, a familiar sensation went through his nerves, like an energetic jolt under his skin. His pulse quickened and pupils widened in anticipation. When in range, he could feel **that precious person** , guess his exact location from the feeling alone.

“Cloud.”

* * *

Next: Specimen S-alter 3

As always, I own nothing but my terrible writing.


	2. Specimen S-alter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud and the rescue team find a weird stranger on their way to save Aerith from Hojo’s lab.

“We’re almost there.” Cloud didn’t stop running even for a second, not when they were so close to finding Aerith in the labyrinth of Hojo’s wonders. “To the elevator, quick!”

Tifa and Barret nodded slightly and followed him at full speed. But their wild raid through the cold, sterile corridors ended abruptly just few meters from the destination.

Someone was there. From afar he looked like a trooper, but… His weapons were gone and uniform incomplete, with some parts covered under a lab coat. Also, Shinra’s employees usually didn’t wander the corridors barefoot, right?

The stranger noticed them and immediately stepped back, probably intimidated by Barret’s massive figure. He moved so hastily that he bumped into the wall behind his back and fell to the floor. The mismatched helmet slipped down from the impact, uncovering silver strands of hair…

Cloud and Tifa literally froze in place. Only one creature from their nightmares had such hair, and its sudden appearance meant only flames and pain for the two survivors of the Nibelheim incident.

Seeing that both his companions had freaked out, Barret stepped forward to deal with the new, unknown danger.

“And who the hell might you be?!” He threatened the ‘trooper’ with his mechanical hand. “Another clone, huh?”

“Not exactly,” the stranger answered, raising his hands in ‘I give up!’ gesture. “Just a failed experiment. Here.” He showed them an ugly tattoo on his right arm – ‘Specimen S-alter 3’ - different from the simple numbers they’d seen on the cloaked individuals around Midgar. “They wanted another super SOLDIER, but got _this_ instead.”

By ‘this’ he meant a not very impressive, thin body. Hard to say if he was about Cloud’s age or just undersized and sickly. It seemed that even exposure to mako didn’t help much in making him less fragile.

The three of them took a moment to shamelessly stare at the silver-haired freak, silently calculating the danger. Was he really the one he claimed to be, or maybe Sephiroth had found another way to tease Cloud and disturb their inner peace – by getting into their ranks and destroy them one by one?

The stranger tried to be patient and give them time to process the weird news. He would gladly continue the introductions, but it was not a good moment for that.

“Can I stand up now?”

Cloud frowned. Sephiroth he remembered wouldn’t be so scared by Barret’s yelling (by anyone’s, actually). He wouldn’t need permission to change position. Sephiroth in Cloud’s head used to take what he wanted by force, kill and torment people for his own amusement, with that annoying smile on his ideal face.

This one seemed… human. His face was almost innocent, unable to twist into a malicious smirk from Cloud’s nightmares. And his eyes, although glowing with mako, were normal. Not the ones of a cunning reptile, slit and scary. No, his pupils were round – it almost looked like Jenova had no power over them.

“You’re not him,” Cloud said at last. Slowly, hesitantly.

Specimen S-alter 3 did not answer, just stared, encouraging Cloud to try and find out the truth. Their gazes were locked on each other for a long moment, before Barret interrupted with a meaningful cough.

“We should go before Hojo calls for reinforcements,” the silver-haired said, slowly standing up and wiping the dust off his improvised clothes.

“We?” Cloud frowned angrily. “I don’t remember asking for company.”

“I would rather die than stay here. Besides, I know this place, I can help.”

To their collective surprise, Barret chuckled at the last statement.

“That’s a rather cold way of asking for help.”

“Guess so.” Specimen S-alter 3 realized he gave them a small, shy smile in response, and didn’t know what to think about it. His behavior didn’t make any sense since the incarnation anyway. “Sorry for that.”

“Of course we won’t leave you here,” Tifa said, casting a fiery gaze towards Cloud, so full of resolve, that the blond accepted his defeat almost immediately. Nothing he could say or do at the moment would change her mind. “Let’s hurry.”

Cloud smashed the elevator’s button, as if it was its fault they’re stuck in this cursed place. Their little group took defending positions inside, suddenly feeling uneasy, like a pack of wolves squeezed in a small cage. The silence between them soon became unbearable.

“How should we call you?” Tifa asked out of the blue. Despite the obvious shock just a moment ago, she at least tried to act friendly. She was far from saying that their new companion didn’t resemble Sephiroth at all, but he seemed even less scary than some of the pitiful clones they’d encountered so far.

Specimen S-alter 3 could feel his brain freezing at the not-so-unexpected question. Why he had forgotten about something this important?!

_Think!_ – he scolded himself, forcing the brain cells to make an effort. _How they used to call us… me before Nibelheim? No, the Demon of Wutai won’t do…_ _Something positive, please?_

Well, at least people seemed to notice his hair color. Silver Elite, Silver General, that was…

“Silver,” he replied, angry at himself that he hadn’t come out with anything better. He should have prepared for their investigation ahead, not make himself sound like an idiot. “Silver is enough.”

“Ok, Silver. I’m Tifa. These nice and talkative gentlemen are Cloud and Barret.” She tried to smile, but tension was visible in her every movement. No wonder, they were about to enter the infamous laboratory at 66th floor, Hojo’s private kingdom. “We’re almost there. Since you’re unarmed, try to stay behind in case of a fight, ok?”

He nodded, but had no intention to follow her instructions. He could fight as well, even in this pathetic state. To not raise unnecessary suspicions – and to hide his embarrassment - he put on the helmet back. It felt like retreating to a thin, fragile comfort zone, to be honest.

The door opened with an ominous hiss and their little gang sprinted out to find Aerith. Just like Silver had said – a group of SOLDIERs was waiting for them in ambush. Hojo watched everything from his usual observatory point.

With his hair hidden, the escaped specimen did not receive more than a glance from the scientist. Aerith, on the other hand, stared at him openly, alert and suspicious. Silver didn’t blame the girl, just hoped she would not interfere with his plans.

After a heated exchange of accusations and yells, the fight broke out. It ended quickly, without casualties on the Cloud’s team’s side. Professor wasn’t happy about it.

“Looks like your models got it wrong,” Barret said, like if he tried to challenge the scientist to throw at them even more powerful enemies.

“Yes, an unknown variable, perhaps.” Hojo’s flat voice was getting on everyone’s nerves. “Well, no matter. Reinforcements will soon arrive.”

“But will they get here in time to save you from me?” Cloud stood before him, fearless, proud and strong, with his sword in one hand and fire in his eyes.

Professor didn’t react to this threat, so sure he’s safe high above them, behind layers of reinforced and bulletproof glass.

But was he really out of their reach?

“Go, Cloud,” Silver whispered suddenly in Sephiroth’s voice, THAT voice from Cloud’s visions and dreams, which seemed commanding and seducing at the same time. “Go get him.”

They all watched in terror how a tiny scratch appeared on the glass right before Hojo’s nose. Then it started to grow into a spider’s web, devouring the barriers one by one.

“Now, Cloud. Go!”

Using all strength of his enhanced body, Cloud jumped.

* * *

Next: In My Mind


End file.
